Frank TrentmannCritiques

Unstructured litany of interesting transformations in consumerism. Keeps jumping around geographically and chronologically like a time-travelling jittery bunny with ADHD on speed.

This is a monumental work that describes what we value and accumulate as “stuff”from the 15th Century to the 21st Century with statistics, charts and copious footnotes. Trentmann debunks many of the myths surrounding the things we own and answers the question, “How does stuff matter?” Our patterns of acquisition have increased and the things we discard are an ever recurring challenge. This is not an easy read. I was fascinated to see the patterns of acquisition reflected against my own lifeline. In this consumer world of ours Trentmann has made a valuable and in depth contribution.

Full of fascinating little facts and well worth the read. Maybe better in the first and last phases and a little too polemic in the middle, but certainly should be on the list of anyone with an interest in how we live today and how we got here.

First, I didn't actually read the Kindle edition. Anyway, there is a lot of interesting material here but for the love of Pete, as someone who knows a good bit about the topic I can only say this could have been said in half the space. Maybe I knew a bit too much about the topic to appreciate the many, many, many examples used, but I just felt this dragged out far too long.